With Pleasure
by gwebn
Summary: Nyo!UK/Canada: Victorian Ball AU. Rosemary is a strong willed young lady with a sharp tongue. Traveling businessman, Matthew is totally into it.


Matthew, acting the part of "wallflower" he was notorious for being, watched the ball twirl and unfold before him. He watched smiling ladies in their colorful, swishing dresses waltz with dashingly dressed men in fitted black suit coats to the beat of the music from the orchestra.

His business partner Alfred, the one who insisted he should come in the first place, was one of the men out on the floor. Friendly and outgoing, he made it his personal mission to dance with all of the ladies who looked like they needed a partner. Matthew wondered how the proper English women felt about dancing with the rambunctious American man who more than occasionally forgot his manners. Now that Matthew thought about it, they probably don't mind. Alfred was as rich as he was and he had a tendency to make it known. The man never shut up about his estate back home in the states and liked to flash his gold pocket watch.

Matthew was not Alfred. He was a shy man with a rural Canadian upbringing with a nervous stutter. He didn't want to make a fool out of himself by asking proper ladies to dance in an improper way so he stuck to the refreshment table or where ever else he could get away with being a wallflower. He had almost succeeded in being completely unnoticed when the master of the house found him.

"Matthew!" The man greeted him with a grin. He- a Prussian mercenary-gone-merchant by the name of Gilbert- was a over sea trading partner and someone who Matthew would consider a friend. "Alfred told me you came with him. I almost didn't believe him. It's a ball! What are you doing sulking over here?"

"I- I've mostly been enjoying the cake." Matthew replied, not lying. Eating was a pretty good excuse for not dancing.

"Gott bless French catering, right?" Gilbert laughed, with a friendly elbow nudge to Matthew's ribs. "I wanted to ask you something. Do you see the smaller lady over there with the light green dress and the sour expression?"

Matthew looked around the room until he saw someone with that description. "The blonde?"

"That's her!" Gilbert nodded. Matthew focused a little closer on her. She was across the room, fiddling with her gloves. She looked just as uncomfortable as he felt. "Her name's Rosemary. She's… nice once you get to know her. Go ask her to dance."

"Gil, I'm not really-" He started before getting cut off.

"Nonsense. One dance. Just up to her, offer your hand like the gentleman we know you are and say 'Will you give me the pleasure of dancing with you?'. See? Easy!" Gilbert said definitively, giving him a push toward the lady in the green dress. "Go dance with Rosie."

"Fine, fine." He sputters, "One dance."

"That's all I ask of you." Gilbert said, satisfied. "Don't step on the lady's toes!"

"Thanks, Gil," He mumbled, crossing the room to the bored looking blonde. He took a deep breath to soothe his nerves before getting her attention. Unfortunately for the butterflies in Matthew's stomach, Rosemary was much prettier up close.

"Hello- Um, I mean," He remembers what Gilbert told him and extends a hand to the lady, "Will you give me the pleasure of dancing with you?"

"With pleasure, sir," With a tone of surprise, Rosemary rose and took his arm with a forced smile. It was good etiquette for ladies to smile at all times during a dance but she didn't seem like the smiling type to him. He lead the tiny woman to floor, racking his brain for everything he knew about dancing.

"M-my name's Matthew Williams." He said, hoping to drum up a conversation. "Are you enjoying the ball so far?"

"Rosemary Kirkland." She replied, swishing along with practiced dance steps in her apple green tulle dress. Matthew guessed that dress was chosen to complement the green of her eyes… which it did quite nicely. "With respects to Gilbert, it's a perfectly lovely ball."

"I agree, Gilbert knows how to throw a ball." Matthew smiled, mindful of the master of the house's warnings not to step on toes as he lead. "But are you enjoying it?"

"Well… I suppose." She said, following his foot falls. He suspected by her tone she wasn't being completely truthful but felt no urge to point that out. "Though, I believe I still have the shoe print of the last gentleman I danced with on my new shoes."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Matthew laughed without thinking and had to side step a nearby couple to avoid a collision. "Who did that?"

"Not to name names, but… He was an American chap. Said he was 'in good old England' on business. " The forced smile dropped off her face as she rolled her eyes. "He said a lot of other things about himself but I stopped listening after a bit to preserve my sanity."

"That… sounds like Alfred." He shook his head at his business partner. "Did he tell you all about his ranch back home?"

"To no end." She groaned. "Why, do you know him?"

Matthew had not noticed until now that he wasn't the one leading the dance anymore. The willful Englishwoman had taken it upon herself to keep the two of them from any more near collisions. Rosemary seemed to know what she was doing, so he wasn't complaining in the least.

"He's my business partner. I hope he remembered his manners long enough to apologize."

"You must have more patience than I do." Rosemary laughed. Even though it was at the expense of his partner, Matthew like the sound. "He didn't even notice."

"That's Al for you." He sighed as he was lead around another couple. "Miss Kirkland, if you could be anywhere but this ball, where would you be?"

"I would rather be literally anywhere but this ball." She laughed again. "Unless, of course it was a different ball. Why do you ask?"

"I feel the same way." Matthew grinned as the piece from the orchestra neared it's end. "Would you do me the honor of joining me literally anywhere but this ball?.. Save another ball, I mean."

She flashed him a smile, a genuine one pretty enough to bring a light pink to Matthew's face. "Of course, Mister Williams. It would be my pleasure."


End file.
